5/8” BI-STOP™ | Natural Gas Distribution Utility, Alberta, Canada

STATS Group has developed a mini-version of its BI-STOP pipeline isolation tool to assist Alberta-based ATCO Gas to complete a meter replacement programme in built-up residential and commercial areas.

ATCO Gas is the largest regulated natural gas distribution utility in Alberta, delivering safe and reliable natural gas to more than 1.1 million customers in nearly 300 communities. The company needed to safely isolate 5/8” steel tubing gas lines connected to meters at residential and small commercial buildings, followed by an HDPE polypipe upgrade and meter replacement.

While STATS Group is a UK-based specialist in the design, manufacture, isolation and testing of piping systems, this BI-STOP™ version was designed, prototyped, tested and built in Canada in only six short months. STATS Group operates across Canada’s oil and gas sector and has bases in Calgary and Edmonton.

STATS’s BI-STOP™ is a small bore intervention and isolation product which provides a complete, re-useable, tooling system to address challenges with isolating small bore, low pressure gas distribution pipelines. The BI-STOP™ enables the pipework to be isolated, cut, and terminated while the system remains live, thereby allowing for system replacements and other upgrades when an isolation is not readily available.

STATS developed the BI-STOP mini prototype which was rigorously tested with ATCO Gas field staff in Edmonton and Calgary regions. Following successful testing, ATCO Gas deployed 50 BI-STOP mini tool systems to field contractors and regional bases to complete the summer programme to upgrade thousands of meters in Alberta.

STATS Group’s Edmonton-based General Manager, Stephen Rawlinson, said: “This innovative hand-operated system is simple to use and fully reusable, allowing contractors or gas utility employees to safely carry out leak free isolations on small bore lines.

“We are delighted to partner with ATCO Gas on devising a method of safely isolating and replacing gas pipelines and meters with a minimum of disruption to their customers. We look forward to working with ATCO Gas on future pipeline isolation needs.”